Transport Minister John Graham is running a protection racket for fat cat bureaucrats in his department who've been quarantined from the massive jobs cuts announced on Wednesday, the Public Service Association can reveal.
On Wednesday the government announced almost 1000 jobs would go from NSW's transport department with a workforce of 16,000 but the PSA has since established the bloated executive of 1,100, who earn between $250,000 and $700,000, will be immune.
This is despite NSW's transport department having far more senior executives than any other department.
The department has one in four of all the senior executives in the entire public sector despite being made up of only 16,000 people and the public service having over 400,000 staff.
The enormous voluntary redundancy entitlements of senior executives, which entitle them to up to $400,000, or 38 weeks pay, if they are sacked is one of the reasons they are hard for governments' to dismiss.
This entitlement can only be changed by legislation.
The PSA is meeting its affected members who haven't ruled out widespread industrial action.
Public Service Association General Secretary Stewart Little says the Minister needs to cut fat cat bureaucrats.
"Transport Minister John Graham is running a protection racket for senior executives, he needs to bite the bullet and clear the decks so people who perform direct frontline services keep their jobs," said Mr Little.
"The truth is it just costs too much to sack these fat cat executives, they're entitled to voluntary redundancies of 38 weeks pay which can be up to $400,000, so they hang around for years while our members on $75,000 get punted.
"But it's more than that, these are the staff the Minister meets with, the ones he runs into in the tearoom, the ones he knows by name, it's hard to sack these people, as opposed to the frontline staff who are just numbers on a page to him.
"The Transport Minister needs to toughen up and sack a few more of these pen pushers, rather than the hardworking people on $75,000 who actually keep traffic flowing and trains running.
"The head of the department has admitted that from 2021 to 2023 his department added an average of two new senior executive roles every week, that's madness.
"The Transport Minister needs to change legislation so they don't have to pay these executives these huge Voluntary Redundancies, these huge golden parachutes of $400,000, so they're easier to hire and fire.
"If this department has to cut 950 jobs you keep the hardworking people at the transport management centre, the accident response drivers in the harbour tunnel and on The Sydney Harbour Bridge, and sack the pen pushers at the top, not make them immune.
"Every day 2.5 million car trips are made, and 3.2 million people commute on public transport, sacking 1000 people is going to cause chaos."
